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THE 



LEGEND OF MAIDEN ROCK. 



THE LEGEND 



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7 



MAIDEN ROCK. 



BY 



ROBERT SIDNEY WAYLAND. 




PHILADELPHIA : 

J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO. 
1870. 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1870, by 

J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO., 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for 
the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 



CONTENTS. 



i. 

PAQE 
OONTUM 7 



II. 

Saunup 33 

III. 

MOREN 51 

IV. 
Nona 73 



1* (5) 



THE LEGEND OF MAIDEN ROCK. 



I. 
O ONTUM. 



FOR many lands within its rocky bourn 
Along the north and sedgy barriers down, 
Unnumbered years the mighty river rolled 
Its drowsy volume through the ancient world. 
Here in the quietness of earlier times 
The dusky children of an untold race 
Over the ripples plied the shivering bark 
Making the waves to run. But loud and long 
Came other sounds from raging beasts of prey, 
That from the hills had come with stealthy tread 
Slow creeping down to lap their noonday drink. 
For when each one had quenched its thirsty maw, 
With throat bent back it sent the thunders crashing 
Up the glens, caught in the sounding banks, 
Till rolling, they died way down the hollow land. 
But often through those listless solitudes, 
And o'er the damps lying along the edge, 
A wilder note, the yell of lawless war, 
Echoed from dark recesses and still nooks. 
Then was the reign of ancient silence broke ; 

O) 



8 THE LEGEND OF MAIDEN ROCK. 

Or when some lonely hawk or fisher-bird 
Dipt in the waves, then shaking off the spray 
With its bright burden flapped up to the cliffs ; 
Or a seeming nobler flight, the eagle, flew 
Shrill screaming over the margin in its wake. 

Here by this sea that swings atow'rd the main 

A people lived in times long since gone by ; 

A people, like the land, rugged and wild 

Before it came to us. And here they had lived 

So long that even their coming was a doubt, 

And knew they not who their progenitors were, 

Except in mythic lay they told of one 

Who came down from that shining seat above 

When all the world was young, and placed them there: 

And hence the name of children of the Spirit 

(That mighty Power unseen) was the only name 

Thev knew themselves by, and 'twas all they knew; 

While vague tradition dim and oft obscured, 

Like some old, half-forgotten nursery tale, 

Came to their help and was their oracle. 

They came, they lived their life, they passed away — 

This is their history, this their epitaph. 

No glowing records marked their untold deeds, 

Nor pond'rous monuments fashioned in great art 

Reveal their wars and victories to these times. 

Perhaps at once they held affinity 

With those old nations that have gone to death, 

And then within the darkness that fell down, 

Wrapping the world up for a thousand years, 

They lost all knowledge like and so sunk lower; 



OONTUM. 

This is conjecture merely, and we know 

They lived and had their day and then went off. 

Here lies a lesson for ourselves to learn ; 

For what is man compared to all of these ? 

Here nations rose in number as the stars : 

They drew the little breath allowed to life, 

Then each was laid beneath the yearly leaves 

To moulder back to little nothingness. 

How vain, how vain our greatness and our hopes; 

Just let us look calm one moment at death 

Then drop our head down at our feebleness. 

Nor can we more. Save for a little while 

For us none will weep, none miss us or care ; 

These too will go, and others still, and we, 

Untold, forgotten, lost to life, will rot; 

And o'er this fleshy temple of the mind 

The dank and hateful weeds will bear their seed 

And hide the earth from day: but it is just, 

For of the tears a dying nation gets 

From others when it passes from the sight 

A single shaking man should not claim one. 

Yet nations have their hearts sometimes like men, 
And some mark'd action will reveal their grief 
And touch a cord of pity in each one. 
Here is an act that comes not down by rote, 
Nor fashioned into taste by learned hands 
Fastidiously. It, unadorned and plain, 
Was kept from ancient times by simple means : 
A homely story, told by common ones 
Around the fires at night. It helped for years 



10 THE LEGEND OF MAIDEN ROCK. 

To quiet mightier passions in the breast 

Of wandering ones bereft. The tales of war 

Were all forgotten to them and had died 

As dies a whisper in a mighty hall, 

And touched the sense no more, but still they kept 

And told this little story of the heart 

Which brought more feeling to a scattered tribe 

Than all the triumphs of their warriors brought. 

In this broad valley there were many tribes, 

And that good Spirit that ever loves his own, 

That keeps the harmless dove safe from the hawk, 

And saves the seedling in its folded coat, 

Had given them food and raiment all their own. 

But they were not content, and still they longed 

(With longing suited with their low desires), 

Till time had made a glory, false indeed 

To that true passion of the higher soul ; 

But they did not discern, and glory here 

Was for the strong and such as ruled by force. 

They got their lessons from their own wild world : 

That latent spark which lies in every breast 

Struck into fire to see the brutes contend, 

And when the weakest one went to the ground 

They saved the other as a thing of sense. 

Nor can we look in hatred on their love : 

This feeling is inherent in all men, 

And comes as surely as we are born depraved ; 

For long before the tower on Shinar's plain 

Rose up in stately grandeur toward the sky, 

Glory — an evil seed of that fell pride 

Through which a wicked angel was cast out 



OONTUM. 11 

Into the lake of fire, who by his fall 

Brought suffering, pain, and death on all of us — 

Was nurtured into life and grew our bane. 

In time of peace a tribe dwelt by the stream 
In conelike lodges, made of bark and moss, 
Lying like beehives in a pleasant vale, 
With walls of green hills on the northern side, 
While on the other bluffs rose like a sea 
When winds are steady ; to the left, the stream. 
Behind them, eastward, was a line of wood 
That closed, as twilight closes into uight, 
Into a forest, wild, and wilderness. 

Far to the others round this tribe was known 
As one whose boast was of its deeds in strife, 
And all its warriors followers of a chief 
Whose love was war and whose command was law. 
For Oontum's mother taught him on her knees, 
By little tales that grow like dreams in shape, 
The way in which true glory could be found. 
Told how his fathers, chieftains of renown, 
Were in those regions past the bounds of life, 
Now resting from their deeds on downy furs, 
While braves stood round with hand and ear intent 
To do their bidding quick with cheerfulness, 
And how the cowards upon the darkened shores 
Walked, fearing ever, and were not content. 

And Oontum press'd the lesson to his heart, 
And followed it as some their schoolday's hope 
Follow until it grows a part of life. 



12 THE LEGEND OF MAIDEN ROCK. 

And long before his limbs were solid grown 
His wigwam held the trophies of his strength 
In shape of clotted remnants of cleft skulls 
Hanging from long, coarse, tangled raven hair, 
Strung round the walls by way of ornament. 

Thus Oontum ruled the tribe by his own will. 
His words in peace were law; his warlike scream 
Was answered by a thousand like his own. 
Then seemingly quick behind each rock and tree 
Within the forest gloom there soon peeped forth 
The brilliant foretops of the dusky clan. 
Then showed each naked body all besmeared 
With herbs and dyes and daubs of colored clay 
Put on with spareless hands in curious shapes 
To make them feared and dreaded; for the chief 
Delighted in the din and fury of war, 
And frowned down fierce on those who loved it not 
And said by a*ct and word they were not brave. 
And when the autumn spread its food abroad, 
And river, valley, plains, and rolling hills 
Were all alive with sounds of wilder life, 
He made them hunt and gather home the game 
To feed the better ones throughout the gloom. 
These did their duty well ; and when the frost 
Had robbed the sumac of its velvet plumes 
The corn was gathered and the meat was dried, 
The robes were piled in corners, and their homes 
Fitted for comfort and the lolling ease 
Of idle heroes resting on their deeds. 

And Oontum's children were with him apart 
Save one his onlv daughter. She was one 



OONTUM. 13 

With all the tender nature of her kind. 
She was a blossom from the mighty trunk 
AsJephtha's was to Israel's eye 
In days of old. And Nona Oontum loved 
With all his soul, and loved her as his own; 
For strength and manhood always do look down 
On innocence with kindness, how much more 
When added is a father's love and felt his trust 
For her he deems the sweetest of them all. 
And Nona's brothers deck'd out for the wars, 
With huge rings pendent from their nose and ears, 
Would five times stoop their stalwart bodies down 
To put a kiss upon their sister's lips 
Before they raised their clubs up in their wrath. 

And Nona was their happiness and pride, 
The old men's joy, the idol of them all, 
She made them happy in her ringing laugh, 
And cast a charm around like a light. 
She seemed in her own sweet beauty from above ; 
Like one that haunts us from an unseen land 
And then but in our dreams. So modest too 
And tender was she, like some fragile flower 
That needs support and care, and thus she sought 
For things by nature here on which to lean 
To share her love with, as the vine is taught 
To cling by tendrils to some other stem 
That holds it kindly from the wrathful wind. 
What thing was friendless, lowly, wandering, meek, 
Claiming a tear or asking for a smile, 
To her was dear and of her family one. 
The youngling doves that built about their lodge 

2 



14 THE LEGEND OF MAIDEN ROCK. 

Knew her voice distant, and the timid fawn 

To her caresses bent its slim arch'd neck 

Without a fear, and with its eyes spoke to her ; 

While from her tread the tiny flower not broke, 

She stept so soft to save it, as she tript 

Would raise its head up in the wilderness. 

In evening" when she past the lodges gray 

The old men praised her for their own lost ones, 

And called and blest her in their doting hearts 

For a good spirit — and such she was to them. 

She ministered to those of her own kind 

Whom none cared for ; all were alike to her. 

In pain no sufferer raised his head uncared 

By her when times were tranquil, and she helped 

When war was over bind the warriors' wounds. 

To these she was as in our day so oft 

Was some good Sister by the low hard bed 

Of a hurt soldier that rested from his wound 

Dreaming a shapeless dream ; so when his hurt 

Shook him by spells, he, raising up his head, 

And seeing the features of that minister • 

In prayer over him, thought of peace, 

And looked on her as on an angel of Heaven. 

She moui'ned with those who had a cause to mourn, 

And joyed with them who in their hearts rejoiced. 

And Nona-'s beauty in her outward form 
Matched well the beauty of her mind and heart, 
And beauty always is more beautiful 
To other ones when these do go together. 
Her body was not large, but perfect made, 
Straight and erect, and not deformed by care. 



OONTUM. 15 

Her chest was wide, full-busted, and her neck 

Uncreased and round and sloping gently down 

As slopes a little hillock into the earth. 

Her face within it bore an angel grace 

Unhurt by evil thoughts; around her mouth 

There was a smile that played half seriously, 

That would have turned to laugh or pity quick. 

False pride so common was not hers, but pride 

That makes one better and dearer; and one could see 

Upon her tawny cheek the current and flow 

Of young and lifeful blood. Nor was there need 

Of pressure and of pain to slim a waist 

Made slim by nature ; and her garments too 

Were fashioned not in vanity, though they showed 

A sweeter beauty not intending it : 

A peeping breast struggling over a band 

From which her frame grew wider, and half hid 

The rounded shoulder and arm. But sweeter still 

Was motion that went with her as that grace 

The old love poets sang of; which they said 

That once in ancient regions of the world 

Followed the maidens whom they wished to laud. 

And Oontum gloried in his daughter's form, 

And long before she was intended for it 

He had her marriage-day arranged for her. 

Then to a warrior, Saunup, an ally 

In forays and in war, she was to go ; 

And Oontum thought it was a noble gift, 

And by the union it would bring about 

'T would strengthen his own house by other props 

And keep her place secure. But she knew not 



16 THE LEGEND OF MAIDEN ROCK. 

While in her tender years of this resolve 

Made for her peace and coming happiness; 

So loved him not. But Saunup loved the maid 

Much as a sister one this day would love, 

But not as one whose mind was like his own. 

Yet had it come that Nona was his mate, 

He would have treated her in such a way 

As men at those times held their wives to heart. 

And many a native maid, princess or peer, 

Would have been happy then for Saunup's smile. 

The glory of his arms ; his manly frame, 

Covered with sinewy network, and his place, 

These would have brought devotion and firm trust. 

From such as he those tender-hearted ones 

Seldom or never turn, but learn to love; 

And any one who had trusted in his strength 

Might nestle on his arms her lonely head 

And there, secure, rested from every harm. 

But in a given channel runs not love. 

Love is a restless torrent that breaks out 

Beyond the bounds of ordinary ways 

Impetuously, and will not be assuaged. 

One might as well with handfuls of quick earth 

Go stop the stream bursted beyond its banks 

As smother love with paltry reasonings. 

How many ones there are who think they love, 

How few there be who know even the word 1 

But so it was with Nona that she loved 
Another one than him her father wished, 
A hunter of the tribe that she was of, 



OONTUM. 17 

And one of those the chieftain held beneath 
In place anion? them, and through mere mischance 
It happened at the first to come about. 
For once when Nona gayly went to the wood 
That skirted the village, with some other girls, 
They gathered flowers, and chased the humming-birds 
That flew from wild-cups out till they were tired 
And some were scattered farther in the deep. 
Then Nona sitting down beneath a tree 
One by one pluck'd the leaves, which as they fell 
Dotted the garnishing stars, and in her hand 
The folded bulbs on which she ever mused, 
Thinking on what they held and how they seemed 
To chatter a language in their sweet perfume, 
Carelessly waited on their coming up. 
And as she rested there she did not hear 
A lonesome step come up to where she lay 
Until it was 'most upon her, and as she looked 
She saw some one above her gazing down 
In wonderment at her. She was so scared 
That for a moment-like her heart stood still; 
She could not talk, frightened, although she saw 
That he was startled too and in a fright 
And stood a looking much like one condemned; 
But in his hand he held a bunch of flowers, 
And this attracted her, for it seemed strange 
That he had flowers — a man have flowers ! strange. 
By seeing them her heart was quieted 
On sudden, for they had the same effect 
Upon her heart as has the juice distilled 
Of purple foxgloves on the weakly hearts 
Of those who have a sickness. Still he stood 
2* 



18 THE LEGEND OF MAIDEN ROCK. 

Wrapped in an awe for that long moment there, 

Not knowing what to say or what to do ; 

And she knew not; till, trembling in his tongue, 

He, like a child that tells the simple truth, 

Which, thinking not on the word but on the gift, 

Does prattle what is nearest, said at last, 

"Our princess take these buds: I did not see you — 

I knew not where I went." He said no more, 

But as he past he dropt them by her side 

And into the forest vanished at a turn. 

Her eyes were down : she knew not that he had gone, 

All was so sudden, her surprise so great; 

And when she looked to see him standing there 

No person was before her, none was near. 

But on her mind there was a form impressed, 

Like to the image painted on dead eyes, 

That time could not efface: a boyish frame, 

With a high forehead and a tender eye, 

His head bent sideways in astonishment, 

His hands upraised, and then a bunch of flowers. 

Till then had Nona loved 'most everything 

For its own sake, but now there came full fast 

Another feeling, but she knew not what, 

That stole upon her almost unaware. 

She reached out for the offering that he had made, 

Took it and kissed it as a thing of life, 

And put it to her breast and cherished it 

Love-like, making her thoughts upon it. And when 

The wandering maids were going home again 

The others wondered whv she was so sad 



OONTUM. 19 

And seeming thoughtful while their laughter rose. 

But answers to their questions she had not, 

Or else they were evasive and were turned 

Upon a subject foreign to their talk. 

For in her reticence she mused and mused, 

And felt unkindly as she was disturbed ; 

For by comparison his going off 

Had left her stand as one who walks alone 

In night-time when across a cloudless sky 

A meteor makes a shining path of fire 

And breaks upon the zenith ; then when he 

Who saw the heavens lit up suddenly bright 

Looks and beholds the scattered flakes descend 

When darkness comes again, and, lo ! he thinks, 

While still the vision is before his sight, 

The earth is darker than it was before. 

While modesty is woman's loveliest trait, 

A man shows nature in his bashfulness 

Which often draws disdain ; but some are so 

Ev'n from their infancy — a better trait 

Than boldness is, though seldom thus we reason. 

Boldness is veiled as was that fallen crew 

Sang by old Milton, while the seraphs stoop 

Bashful and sinless in the presence of God. 

And nature is the same throughout the world: 

Nor can we marvel greatly that there lived 

At where the mind was cramped many of souls 

Who in thoughts wandered farther from their sphere 

Than those we read of, and who laid them down 

And died, conscious the world was"all too small 

For their conception. Such the lengthened train 



20 THE LEGEND OF MAIDEN ROCK. 

From him who told of far-resounding Troy, 

The echoing echo of whose wars but still 

Sounds round the world ringing; the clanging fields 

By rolling Simois, and the dreadful wrath 

That left in mighty heaps the unburied bones 

Of perished heroes lying along the shores 

Of distant Xanthus; by him of the song 

Arms and the man, he who by heartless fate 

Impelled, and Juno's rage, drove to the shores 

Of Italy, from whence the glory of Rome ; 

By him to whom his people, aliens! gave 

Taunts (that to age and exile) and disgrace 

For shame they heaped upon him; and for this 

He left her name in kindly recompense 

Side by side with that fair city of bliss 

Whose jewel'd towers and sapphire battlements 

Holds in the splendor of Heaven; even by him 

That wayward singer who cheers our weary way, 

To other ones beyond the sounding main 

In dreary countries where the light of sense 

Shone never on the soul; — all those whose minds 

Are known to fame and those more numerous 

Who have died unheard, but even who themselves 

In secret grieved over their loneliness. 

Such was this hunter Timid like a girl 
He hung his head and felt like any of them 
To think upon himself. Nor was it strange 
That old men slowly shook their weakling heads, 
And talked foreboding of his future years ; 
That in their many changing prophecies 
They told with wondrous wisdom how that ill 



OONTUM. 21 

Hung over him and surely was bis doom. 
For separate from the others was his mind 
Which was not suited with his way of life, 
But grew as some fruit fit for man to have 
Grows on an arid waste and there decays, 
Its worth unknown and gone. All was a doubt. 
A man in darkness could approach his thoughts 
Who, lost in some far labyrinth under ground, 
Gropes for the light of day, while all around 
The smooth and pond'rous walls he feels his way 
And rounded pillars which he cannot clasp 
For mightiness: then walls and walls again 
All incoherent spread their magnitude, 
Till in despair he feels his littleness, 
Yet knows the blessed light shines far away, 
But all is dark to him. Thus, as his brain 
Expanded with the going of the years, 
The doubt was more his own, and all he knew 
Was what the greatest man of heathen times 
Said is our wisdom, Nothing can be known. 

He did not like the people as they lived, 

Nor with them think to find the peace he sought; 

But these he oft forsook to find a spot 

Where nature was harmonious with his soul ; 

He would have lived with his own dark thoughts rather 

Deep in the wood -than be with them with theirs. 

This was his nature, and even when a boy, 

Devoid of any care, he did not mix 

Among his playmates as they trained their limbs 

In sports of puny war over the green; 

But these he left to have their joys alone 



22 THE LEGEND OF MAIDEN ROCK. 

While he had his. These were in solitude, 
Where quiet stilled him with the outer world, 
Or lulled him down in listless reveries 
With rippling murmurs, solitude of life. 
Or on a bank of moss under a tree 
Aged and hoary, dim with lichen gray, 
The misty dress of time (the garlands sad 
Of ancient days), and venerable for age 
Beyond frail man, while ever round about 
The whispering leaves and lonely drone of bees 
The live-long summer day made the mind dream. 
There often would he rest; there in his heart 
Was laid the germ of such an alien fruit 
As nurtured has been death to many ones. 
There to his vision rose those forms laid low, 
And there through v\stas long a land appeared, 
Serene and fair, in which their spirits rested, 
In happiness unknown; for what is loved 
By heathen souls within the flesh is loved 
In image — perfect in their paradise. 

Moren that morning was a-hunting game 

With other hunters but till they past on by 

And left him lagging in the wood behind, 

Among the whitened blossoms. When he had filled 

With scarlet buds his hands, and stars of day, 

And little stems which other ones called weeds, 

He made them to a bundle prettier far 

In careless taste than had they been arranged. 

Then with his eyes bent down for many a step 

O'er the rough land he trod without a thought 

Until he suddenly woke, but woke as one 



OONTUM. 23 

That wakes to dream again ; then he stood 
Frightened and lost before the princess' eyes. 

Then what he said was spoken with the thought, 
Like lightning come and gone ere we are aware. 
Then as a man that scares at echoes made 
By his own footfalls in an empty place 
Where all is night and stillness, was he scared, 
Nor did he stop till he was hid secure 
In his own lodge behind the common street. 
There raged the tempest in his mind again 
Lest she was angry at him, but the thought 
Ev'n made the sweetness of that short-lived look 
Like sunny gleams come up before his sight. 
Yet trust himself he could not to a thought, 
Well knowing the changing nature of the world, 
For often had he found himself at ease, 
And then the knowledge that it would not last, 
Creeping, thief-like, stole all his ease away, 
And made him feel more sad and miserable. 

But he had never known the earth to hold 
So fair a creature as he saw in her, 
And though she was the talk of all the tribe, 
He knew her merely by the outward sign 
That tells of inward greatness, and he felt 
That he could follow her for evermore, 
To do her bidding as they did the men's — 
Yet else than give his service or his life 
He felt himself unfitted, and he dared 
Not even hold a thought he loved, for when 
The image of that one came upward to him 



24 THE LEGEND OF MAIDEN ROCK. 

He crushed the thought as though it were a sin — 
A stain that spots the conscience ; then he went 
More often to the wood, and stay'd there longer, 
Trying to learn from out the wide-spread book 
Knowledge so deep that none can comprehend; 
To seek in darkness what was not revealed, 
A clew to ravel that deep mystery, 
The deepest of all mysteries and the saddest. 
He grew still shyer, and he kept himself 
From contact with the others ; for his part, 
He would have lived and died in his despair 
Before he would have told what was his hurt. 

Not so with Nona, for the more she thought, 
And as the space grew longer from that time 
When all her thoughts were jarred and ill-confused, 
Till after grew they into one known form, 
Had she within her felt that longing more 
To see him once again and feast her eyes. 
And though the flowerets were all faded now, 
She kept them still, and loved them as her own, 
As we do love a picture dim and gray 
That calls to mind the face of one who stays 
In some far country other than our own. 
And in the flowers she saw the heart of him 
Who spoke and gave, and all her days were long. 
She went about the lodges oftener now, 
And question here was made by her for him, 
But asked in such a way that they who heard 
Thought that she scarcely spoke in earnestness. 
Thus many days dragg'd onward till it chanced 
A time was coming, and she had a hope, 



OONTUM. 25 

And came it after waiting, for the chief, 
Calling a council of the braves in which 
All were to appear upon the open ground, 
For fear of his displeasure, Moren came 
From out the place of his obscurity 
Caring for none nor wishing any care. 

Then in that morning early Nona rose, 
And in an anxious fever outlived the dawn 
That slowly stole across the eastern world. 
Then with the morning people came and came 
While she looked vainly for the expected one 
By many maidens near the chieftain's throne. 
But as we near the grave sweeter is life ; 
The haven dearer from a troubled sail ; 
The later some long hope is realized 
The joy is greater when it comes at last. 
So Nona was more happy in the sight 
Of him whose coming was so long delayed 
After her silent waiting; for she had looked 
To every corner for him till her hope, 
In conjuring up some fearful accident, 
AVas flagging almost down into despair; 
But all this passed away when he appeared 
With hasty step to join the scattered crowds 
Collecting close to hear the chieftain's will. 

When Nona saw she felt herself relieved 
And lightened of a burden that bore down, 
And felt a tinge throughout her every nerve 
As though she could have shouted. When he stood 
With folded arms back from the thicker crowd 

3 



26 THE LEGEND OF MAIDEN ROCK. 

With fortitude in Aveakness she went to him, 
Thoughtless what to say, or why she went ; 
But with her tongue aflight with hasty words, 
" If I mistake not once you gave me flowers. 
Are you not he ?" To hear so sweet a voice 
Was Moren moved, and looked to see who spoke : 
But eyes spoke more in one short lapse of time 
Than tongues could have described within a life. 
" I did ; you will pardon me," he said confused. 
" No pardon, for I love them — love all flowers, 
And those were very pretty." And she looked 
From under her long eyelashes to her wrist 
Whereat she with a trinket idly toyed. 
She stood a moment thus while neither spoke. 
Then Nona said to him, " I thank you for them;" 
And Moren nodded, but he spoke no word, 
When she, joining some passing ones who called, 
Lost herself to him in the changing throng. 

Thereat the first time when he caught her eye 

His senses were all dazzled by its glance, 

As birds they say are sometimes lost with fear, 

For hers were fired with that celestial love 

Whereof the more we look the more of Heaven. 

And lightning never made a sudden wreck 

Of a tall kingly oak out on a waste 

Quicker or more complete than that bright flash 

Changed his old love and shaped his destiny. 

But long the words she spoke remained with him, 

As a last kiss upon some dear loved lips 

With us does live forever. So he loved. 



OONTUM. 21 

Then when they were ranged in circles round the chief 

He raised his voice and spoke to them of war. 

"A war-cloud gathers on our borders near 

And is about to break. I now propose 

To lead you, braves, against an ancient foe. 

1 wish you all to come that can bear arms 

To break his strength. Saunup's tribe, following him, 

does with us and will share us in our fame. 

An age's glory will be with our arms 

When we have strangled even the smallest babe, 

Not leaving one to tell of their disgrace. 

Let those who talk of hating war for fear 

Remain behind and keep gvay company, 

Protect the squaws, and sometimes get them food, 

And make a feast for us when we come back. 

Who goes make ready; by the changing moon 

Our cover then must be the leaves and sky." 

Then one loud shout went upward from the throng" 
Like thunder rolling on the distant wind, 
That showed their hearty assent to what he said. 
Then the wild shout woke Moron, and with a start 
He shook that lethargy from him, for till now 
His reason was lost to every outward thing-. 
And with the shout the tension holding them 
Snapp'd, when all dispersed like feathery clouds 
Slow breaking from a storm where rain is spent, 
Where off in little groups they talked the news, 
Greeting each other, while their compliments 
Incessantly came in ways they had of their own, 
For manners came scarcely by effort, but 
Naturally are inborn before thev are bred. 



28 THE LEGEND Oh MAIDEN HOCK. 

The village now from night to morn, again 

From morn to night in clays that intervened 

From now till when the warriors should go forth, 

Was all alive with bustle; but before 

The morning came when they should take the field 

Their wizard priests were busy in their arts, 

And smoke of sacrifice continually — 

A sign propitious of their sure success — 

Curled upward towards the seat of all their power. 

The days were passed in feasting, and the nights 

Spent out in deep debauch and revelries, 

With dances, music, and exciting yells. 

Half-clad in garb of war around their fires 

They kept their dreadful orgies loud and wild, 

Up to the night before it, and in that 

Their passions and their excesses knew no bounds. 

For all was centered in their dance of Avar, 

That revel when the staidest warrior 

Grew frantic o'er the tale repeated oft 

That charmed the list'ners' ear. Then he rose up, 

Seized on his arms, and in the vacant air 

Struck at the-passing ghosts of chieftains slain 

In midnight fight in some far-distant fray. 

Or still with fiendish pride exult ingly sang 

Of how they inflicted pain on captive foes, 

And how they would on these. Then little eyes 

Looked on in worship to the godly power, 

And timid maidens told to lovers' ears 

How they felt envious at the old men's fame. 

A level plat, fronting the council lodge, 
Extended in a square across the town, 



OONTUM. 29 

And here they held their feasts. Within its midst, 

Like some lone pillar on a foreign coast, 

Arose the stake, the symbol of their joys. 

'Round this they danced, and when the night arrived 

That was the last one ere they started off, 

A score of heaped-up fires, flaring and red, 

Blazed on the square and shot their crimson beams 

Across the plat far into the night; 

While in the glimmering darkness from the stake, 

Seated upon the ground in circling rows, 

The grave musicians sat with bended backs, 

And tuned their dissonance with the female screams. 

Then fifty braves, the choicest of the tribe, 
Dress'd for the field, advanced. First low they bent, 
Their feathery scalp-locks brushing on the ground ; 
Then to each side in measured, stately tread, 
Their long limbs swinging to each supple joint, 
They bowed their bodies down: now high their crests 
They toss'd in air, and down each naked back 
Flapped the long hair with each quick jerk and toss. 
They swung their arms aloft at every note 
As fancy should suggest, or lowly down 
Let them drop in company with their voice. 

There was no melody in their grating noise, 
Nor in their voice, nor yet devoid of rhythm 
Was the wild burden which they forced aloud 
In consonance with discord. Like the laugh 
In the wild ravings of a maniac crowd 
Heated within their blood, uprose each note 
In quick succession from their upturned mouths, 
3* 



30 THE LEGEND OF MAIDEN ROCK. 

"Hi, ha-hah, hu-ah, ha-hah," to the strokes 
Beat on the leathern gongs, and the sharp claek 
Of clapping hands struck by the list'uers round, 
To whose fast measure kept each heavy foot 
As intricately moved the separate bodies 
Among the others, as in the summer sun 
The insects fly above the stagnant pools. 
While quicker beat the music, and with the noise 
The braves became impetuous, and the} r danced 
Faster and faster, and louder came each voice 
Inciting the rest to every one engaged. 
The wood upon the blazing fires piled high 
Scattered the flickering sparks along the sky, 
And colored the smoke to clouds of running blood 
Waving deep into each other, while below 
Each darksome body caught the infective glare 
And seemed more hideous and more terrible far; 
Till Oontum with the hatchet struck the stake, 
When the dance ceased and all the noise was stilled. 

The chieftain then related of his wars, 
Told of the perils he had passed from home 
Among the dangerous tribes, and how by art 
He'd brought as tributaries nations old 
But for the pleasure that he found in war. 
Then heated furious when he show'd to them 
The fire of burning lodges lick the heavens, 
With all their inmates turned out into th' wood ; 
And how they bound to rocky clitfs up high 
The bodies of their warriors of renown, 
And how the vultures picked their bones for food, 
And whetted their beaks against the fallen skulls, 



OONTUM. 31 

Still ending that this war would be his best, 

And till his death his o-lorv should grow with his years. 



And ever as he said his deeds of might 
The other ones applauded. When he was done, 
Once more the company of the braves swung round 
Till the black stake was struck which bade them cease, 
When Saunup sang his exploits in these words : 

" I am a warrior and a chieftain too. 

My work is war and my delight is war. 

Often have I fought: many scalps I have brought 

From braves I killed. I killed a mighty chief, 

He who was king of the Crows. I scalped him. 

I covered my face with his blood. As for his scalp, 

I hung it round my neck. Then first I danced. 

Oh, I am young, but I shall win a fame ; 

I will, I will. My father was a chief, 

And he killed many ; but I his son will mind. 

I'll go with you to war. Then when I kill 

I'll scalp them, thus. Och ! I shall make them cry. 

I'll lap their blood ; that is sweetest of all. 

Then when the war is over I shall rest 

A-telling my deeds, while others when they talk 

Of bravery, will say, as brave as Saunup." 

Loud came the shouting when he told them this, 
From all the braves and warriors standing round ; 
And soon the place was filled; louder yet still 
Yelled the dark crew around the noisy fires 
That crackling blazed and shot their flames up higher. 



32 THE LEGEND OF MAIDEN ROCK. 

Then many aspirant told, with boastful threat, 
The fame that lay in store which he should win — 
This ere the moon would round to its full size. 
So all night long they shook the quiet shades 
With fierce portents and fiercer sounds of rage, 
Which frighted the birds of darkness and awoke 
To sounds obscure the caverns of the wood. 
And when the gates of heaven in the east were loosed, 
And burst the sun in splendor o'er the trees, 
They took their march in long and coiling lines 
Till the deep forest swallowed them up entire, 
While all the females set up bitter moan. 



II. 

SAUNUP. 

A ND so they went to war to win renown, 
-El- And left the village to peace. Then sorrow came, 
Staying but like a season, as the skeleton comes 
To sit at feasts when all the meats are gone. 
Then Moren knew their thoughts, and so he raved 
With bitterer hate by far upon his lot, 
Because he was no warrior, and because 
There was no way of winning fame but this 
To satisfy their palates, and the lusts 
That grow by thirst of blood. And it was plain 
That he was held unworthy, for the highest 
Were those who fought in battle for their name. 
Then to the woods he went from sight, there 
Wandering about, hated and feared, away 
Hid from their haunts among the peaceful ways 
Where snakes, and newts, and clumsy ill-shaped toads 
Reveled, and brooded the evil birds ; 
A hollow place that held a lonely glen 
Where Winter dwelt among the somber hills, 
Sending his voice upon the restless winds 
Throughout the rounding years continually ; 
Where nothing grew save such unhappy weeds 
As from the hungry laud unwholesome spring 
Indigenous, poisoning all the air; 
Here ugly gentian blossomed, and in patches, 

(33) 



34 THE LEGEND OF MA I DEN ROCK. 

Friendless and unkind, the nightshade crept 
Over the sands which foreign winds had swirled 
In little ridges, — wandering here he found, 
Half hidden among the mould, a warrior's skull 
Colored by time, and thus to it he spoke : 

" And this is part of what was one of us. 

And is his glory dwindled down to this? 

Say, were his battles many, or were few ? 

Yet matters not, for this is your reward, 

Not decent covered with your native earth 

Manito, Spirit, or what name thou hast, 

Thou Great Unknown, didst thou thy children make 

So free as those dim whispers from thee say? 

Or were we made like game to be ensnared ? 

Was that part in us which is kin to thee 

Made to be ruined and like unto beasts? 

And shall our bodies be torn and rent apart 

By those w r ho happen to be made more strong ? 

Shall we be poisoned by them ? Shall we turn 

The feeling you gave us into such as theirs ? 

'Tis like your owner had a lively taste 

Of his own greatness, and he thought him chief 

Of earth and water, yet he could not tell 

The reason why the light comes after snow, 

Or knew the hidden power that lies hid up 

Within a tiny oak-seed. That is grand. 

How funny it is to think that you who lived, 

Who couldn't contain your anger, but roared like 

thunder, 
And withered poor creatures with your lightning eyes. 
Should take the kick I give you. Chuck ! Ho, so ! 



SA US UP. 35 

A handsome eye that lizard makes you now. 

Yet too I pity you, seeing you lie 

Amongst the weeds — this from my other self, 

Well knowing- that we all are like the clods 

Nor have a life within us of our own. 

Your eyes don't see the world : you cannot speak ; 

You hear me not. That mighty, mystic thing 

Talking within us ever, — is that dead ? — 

As thus we call it, dead ? dead How strange ! dead. 

When as the winter fires consume the wood 

Where goes the vapor? Is the vapor lost? 

A world is sure within us, and another, 

A happier life dwells in it: in this world 

I live, nor arms, nor fame, or anything 

Can draw me from that world in which I live." 

But like the sun a ray of shining hope 

Lifted these clouds of thought and scattered them off, 

And warmed his heart and made his blood run high. 

Thus for a little while he stood in day. 

Soon, very soon, the fire lit by that spark 

Kindled, and kindling blazed into a flame, 

And wrapped itself around the hearts of both. 

Then Moren left his hidden place to walk, 

Putting himself and all the world aside 

To get a glance from Nona and a smile. 

Then every morning would she find some flowers 

Tastefully made lying upon the path 

On which she walked to catch the scented air 

Of sweetly summer, blown from myriad balms 

That perishing died over the western fields. 

But in among the rest she always found 



3fi THE LEGEND OF MAIDEN ROCK. 

A sprig of fadeless laurel, then she knew, 

In language of the flowers, who they were for. 

Thus on from little to more, from thoughts to words, 

As none was near to watch her or forbid, 

They went the way that lovers easily know, 

For though 'twas she who at the first made love, 

His grew the stronger as the days grew on, 

Till at the last he thought her all his own ; 

And on his kiss at evening by themselves, 

He hanging on her lips, both felt as free 

As robins wrangling for a cherry in air. 

He saw her soul reflected in his eyes, 

And in it read his happiness or doom, 

While she believed that all of life was there, 

Having no wish by which she would be disturbed. 

In these days Moren was much relieved in mind, 

As nothing baleful lay across his way, 

Till one or two returning from the war 

Reported of their actions and made stir 

Of how they were successful, how progressed, 

And how soon time they would be all returned. 

Then he whose mind hung on a balance like, 

Moved by the least caprice was made disturbed. 

He called the rest unhappy, and himself 

Was most unhappy; but never did he cease 

To reverence, with all his heartfelt love, 

That creature whom he deemed of all most blest, 

Yet sometimes had a doubt that all was right ; 

But with the smallest hope which those make great 

He rested feverish for a better day, 

With his whole heart put on a fallen word. 



SAUNUP. 37 

Love is the light that bickers from the dark, 
Calling to rest the long-benighted man 
Wandering ; and as he stops before the door, 
Fearing to enter lest the master's voice 
Bids him again begone, so Moren stood 
Encovered by doubt; but in the world he saw 
Among the wrecks confused and toss'd about 
The love of Nona : saw it as one sees 
The little flowerwaif drooping from its thread 
Hanging upon the ivy sad and old 
That creeps about the donjon which now lies 
Razed on the ground with all its mighty towers 
Oft'n i' the old land. Nona was otherwise, 
For she was ever expectant and her faith 
Put in her father's granting her her wish 
Was firm and strong if she should importune. 
" what a joy," she thought, "for father's self 
When he comes back, and rests him from the war, 
To know his Nona has so true a love, 
And one so worthy of his house and power." 
A woman surely could not brave the world 
If hope were taken away; for hope but lives 
A lasting remnant of the golden time 
When men were fed on fruits the gifts of gods. 
Thus hope dwells still in every breast for good. 
As in the spring-time, as the days and nights 
Hang on a balance, and the raging storms 
That cross the tropics sweep the northern world 
With angry blasts, making the distant hills 
And the low earth dim, while on some peak afar 
The sunlight for an instant makes a crown 

4 



38 THE LEGEND OF MAIDEN ROCK. 

Glorious, is hope the light on lonely hearts 
In this dark world of toil and turbulence. 

Meantime the war was ended, and once more 

The braves rejoiced to see their wigwams rude, 

And so they came in splendor all bedecked 

In martial glory and a pageant's pride. 

First come those ones who had won their fame again, 

Their trophies hanging thickly round their waists, 

Their bodies soiled with blood, with dinted clubs 

Swung on their shoulders, and their bone-tipt spears. 

Next, led, the prisoners whom they deigned to spare 

For torture, they motionless like and sad, 

Being tied with hides and led before the chief, 

Who followed with his cold-cut hero face, 

Attended by his sons and dignitaries : 

He in a mantle fabricked of dried grasses 

And brilliant feathers of the forest birds, 

With bright bark interwoven, with a fringe 

Of fur, got from the otter and the mole, 

Around the border of it every way. 

Here Saunup was among them with the sons. 

Behind of these on litters came the dead 

Which they could carry from the ruined field 

Back to their homes to give them burial there, 

And fill their pyramid of heroic dead. 

After these came the others with their arms: 

Some bows and quivers had, and some had spears, 

Javelins, hooks, and knives of sharpen'd ribs, 

And every instrument that could be of use 

To torture or to bring pain on the flesh ; 

While rose aloft, at many intervals, 



SAUNVP. 39 

The cold, dead human heads, of which the eyes 
Seemed still to look down on them. All were dressed 
In gear of war, with towering feathers high, 
Which the wild eagles shook once in the storms 
About their eyries in the mountain cliffs. 
They all had rings hanging down from their ears 
Upon their shoulders, and from out their noses, 
Circling their mouths, through which they grinned 

like beasts, 
For all their mouths were black'd around with clay, 
And round their eyes were scarlet or like blood. 

The people then came out to see them in, 
And all along the way their shouts went up, 
While drums were beat to make a kind of march, 
And rattles of bison-horn and pipes of reed 
Threw out their discord as to increase the din. 
So when they came within the well-known square, 
Now thickly packed around for many deep, 
They made their slow way toward the council lodge, 
Which rose high on a mound above the rest. 
Here were the women placed ; this was the spot 
Where they should stop, and where for coming days 
They should regale themselves, and satiate 
To fullness, feasting till their cares were gone. 

When Nona saw those ones so dear approach, 
The passion in her she could not contain, 
But left her stand, and in her gayest dress 
Ran forward when the column came in view 
And as she crossed the plat in flowing robe 
That bent itself to all her rounded limbs, 
Her black hair streaming in the wind behind, 



40 THE LEGEND OF MAIDEN ROCK. 

Bound from her forehead by a band of gold, 
From which a sea-shell rose, — she seemed again 
Not of this earth, and every voice was still. 
The varied colors of the skies and wood 
Waving shone on her, and a girdling belt 
Of whiteness bound the folds to fit complete ; 
And round her arms were bands of virgin gold 
Which showed the grains of flinty rocks like pearls. 
No voice was heard as 'cross the plat she ran ; 
And when she reached her father's side he stopped ; 
Bending his body down in stately pride 
To her embrace, about his heavy neck 
She threw her arms, and on his angled mouth 
Her own, which never yet was falsely pressed, 
She pressed with all a daughter's passion felt. 
Thereon the crowd, whose pulse is easy moved, 
Seized on the moment, for their blood was up, 
And every mouth was opened ; far and wide 
Beyond the happy town the echoes sounded 
Among the hollow wood, and all were glad. 

When greeting had been ended and they told 

To eager list'ners all of that old tale 

Of dangers, hardships, and of bitter times, 

Now magnified because they were but past — 

On that same evening ere they settled down, 

Being not so restless as they were all day, 

Did Nona's father to him draw her near 

To tell her how through all the fruitful war 

Had Saunup earned a fame to last for time ; 

A fame so fit that it deserved her love — 

That he should have it ; for from a day far back 



SAUNUP. 41 

Before her pretty childhood had gone by 

He promised her to him as being most fit 

To guard their bud and cherish it in bloom 

When it had grown. " Now after," thus he said, 

" I see you sitting by the wigwam door, 

And thinking in your mind how he and I 

Are far away and fighting side by side, 

And ever wishing in your silent heart 

For him to come and nestle by your breast, — 

To listen while he tells the little ones 

Of truant war with all its strange mishaps. 

This is the grandest time my heart could wish, 

For I am giving all my Nona wants 

Which of itself is out of th' other's hope." 

Then Nona's eyes were on a sudden enlarged 
Under the new excitement, and she said, 
Looking to Oontum's face, "0 father dear, 
Instead of pleasing, you do hurt my heart. 
I do not love brave Saunup as you say, 
Nor ever had a wish to call him mine ; 
But I do love another, whom I know 
For my sake even you can learn to love 
When you have known him, for he's worthy of it — 
(I think sometimes that I am not of him). 
He will bring honor to us I know well, 
For he loves me with more than common love ; 
And I was waiting, hoping, till you came 
To tell you of it and to get your will. 
And as you love me, father, I do know 
That you will grant my greatest wish to me 
That ever } r et I've had a cause to seek." 
4* 



42 THE LEGEND OF MA I DEN ROCK. 

'Tis true that Nona was in part confused, 
But in the simple nature of her kind, 
Confiding all her care and all her hope, 
She broke her happy joy to Oontum's ear. 

Then Oontum's face did slowly show a frown 

To see requited ill his plan matured, 

And turned to naught by her he loved the most. 

" My Nona," said he with his lips compressed, 

" I look upon your love as foolishness — 

Whatever it may be as a passing flash 

Not worthy of a second thought — nothing at all 

Compared with that of him And so, my bud, 

You shall do as I bid you, for I know 

The thiug that is far better for us all. 

As Saunup claims you, on to-morrow's morn 

I shall with pleasure place your hand in his, 

Yet with a sorrow let it go from mine. 

But he will keep you all your living days 

As 'comes a chieftain's daughter and a wife." 

But Nona's eyes were on the leafy floor, 
And but confusedly she seemed to hear — 
Heard as some innocent convicted hears. 
His silence woke her and she raised her face ; 
His that just bore that harsh look was more calm. 
Yet could she hardly speak, nor dare she try, 
111 new T s so sudden breaks the body down. 
She raised her arms above her ; down they fell 
Upon his shoulders where she hung, and hid 
Her head beside his own, and trembled sore. 
And there she hung a goodly time ; at last 



SA UNUP. 43 

She slowly found expression, and she cried, 
" father, how you frightened me! I thought 
Which time your dear face wore that angry scowl 
That all your sullenness was bent on me. 
But say it is not so. How could your heart 
Be angry at me when I only said 
I love not Saunup? Will you kill me quite 
By saying I must have him ? O take that back, 
Dear father, take it back, that bitter word 
You did not mean for me. Do only say 
You are not angry with me, and kill me not, 
kill me not by saying I am his. - ' 

But Oontum loosed her arms with gentleness, 
And pushed her from his shoulder where she clung. 
Then all uneasy-like, both short and quick, 
He said, " Nona, you are his and his alone," 
And left her lying sobbing, head in arms, 
Upon a furry seat, while from his mouth 
"A passing fancy common to the young" 
Came with a settled firmness ; but she lay 
Through all the lingering hours of that drear night 
All lonely, sobbing in her sudden grief, 
Wishing that she could die and have her love 
Die with her, and that both of them were hid 
Out of the sight of all the living world 
In that dark valley of the silent dead ; 
Till by-and-by the morning stars grew dim, 
And glowed the embers on their dying fires 
Faintly outside whereby the revelers slept. 
Then when her body was so tired and racked 
Did nature, mother-like, soothe all her pain, 



44 THE LEGEND OF MAT DEN ROCK. 

And rocked and lulled her till it was forgot 
As in her grief she, weeping, fell to sleep. 

The morning came, and with it Oontum came 

To see her, thinking she was changed for good, 

Or that the suddenness and time he had told 

The news to her affected her the most. 

His coming broke her sleep and she stood up ; 

But how that gentle face was marked with grief 

Since the last evening when she was so gay ! 

He was surprised to see her, and exclaimed, 

" Why, Nona, how is this ? I came to see 

You waiting for me in your best attire 

With all the household glad. What means this change ? 

Say, are you ill, or wherefore do you grieve?" 

Then burst her voice forth in a piercing shriek, 

" O father, let me be to die, to die." 

And on the floor she lay with body bent. 

Nor could he calm or quiet her so much 

As find for what she mourned ; but heard her moan 

Full sore and passionately at his feet, 

Till on the sudden flashed the cause upon him. 

Then over her he stooped ; he raised her up, 

And on his mighty body let her rest. 

Yet soon he petulantly set her down, 

With full intent to have his way in this 

And then to make her. happy as before. 

She, left alone, her storm did slow subside. 

As one determined inwardly to do, 

She rose herself to make her feel more strong. 



SA UN UP. 45 

She called aloud the name of one who came, 

Whose duty it was to wait upon her wants, 

One trusted by her, and to whom she said, 

" Go tell my brother of the eagle eye, 

Say to him to come quickly ; tell him too 

His sister sent you" — and the girl sped off. 

He with the surname Eagle-Eye then came, 

A warrior like his father huge and strong, 

But with a heart withal that ever beat 

Tender for her who was their own. His mirth 

Was stricken down within him when he saw 

Her as she was and so unlike herself. 

" Why, Nona, what is the matter? say, sweet bud, 

What power has crushed you since I saw you last?" 

She told him in a manner much composed 

The doleful story of her father's will 

That went so much against her, ending thus : 

" If you, my brother, wish to see me live, 

Or if 3 T ou love me as you say you do, 

Or if you even think a good thought of me, 

Then tell our father to break off his word 

And let me live with mine or not at all." 

" Why you," and at the thought he laughed outright, 

" Why you, my sister, are a peevish girl 

To make such fuss at nothing. Better far 

That you were laughing in expectancy 

Of better times before you. And why do you 

Fret like a wounded bird at your good luck? 

Where is the one who, placed as you are placed, 

Would not be jumping in her heart? I think 

That you, with wiles best known to your own kind, 

Do not think half so much as you let on. 



46 THE LEGEND OF MAIDEN ROCK. 

Say, is 't not so?" " Oh, mock me not that way," 

Cried Nona, changed — she not expecting this. 

"And do you think that I could be untrue, 

And clothe my tongue in such a low deceit? 

I thought you knew me better, brother mine." 

Then answered he, but not in mirth fulness, 

" I did not say it, little one, that you 

Had clothed your tongue deceitfully. Oh, no 

So, think you so, I'll wipe that stain away." 

Her forehead kissed thereon. " Now then ; but, if 

You love not Saunup (but I trust you do), 

What kind of love is yours compared with him ? 

Where will you find his like within the world ? 

To me the thought has often come, that when 

You leave our lodge to give your care to him 

You in a little while will be estranged. 

Then would I cross my nature and be sad ; 

But were you happier, then should I be pleased. 

May be he cannot, in a winning voice, 

Coo, pigeon-like, his song within your ear 

Of never-ending love ; yet he could love 

And tell it not in words, but by his acts, 

Which come more hand}*" than does gliding speech. 

1 know his prowess well, and well his strength, 

For with my eyes I've seen him lick the blood 

From off the scalp-locks of the boldest braves, 

As though it were honey dripping from the comb. 

Then carried well the name he bore before — 

That which he earned when young — the Mountain Cat. 

But had you seen him then, his face and arms 

Running with others' blood, you would have thought — 



SAUNUP. 47 

Before the night-star showed his evening light — 
Thought it your highest glory to be his." 

Thus ran he on, as heated by the theme, 

But little cared she then to hear the tale ; . 

For when she thought of how she'd pledged herself, 

Thought also of the troth she plighted once — 

Not mockingly, but with her inner heart — 

She found a voice to plead her cause, and spoke : 

" I have, said my wish, and told you of my love, 
So talk can never change me ; but if he 
And you, my oldest brother, give me off, 
Or try to give me off, before that time 
Take me to the green, and tie my hands 
Behind me, bind my body to a stake ; 
Thus burn me up, and gladly will I die, 
And think so kindly of you all the while, 
For keeping me from lingering out my life." 

Her brother knew it was idle to urge on 

As she was sure in earnest; for that love 

Which makes the strong ones weak, the weak ones 

strong, 
Had made her look determined and of will. 
And half for pity did he then relent 
With promise to do for her what he could. 

He sent his brothers to her, and she told 
The same to them, and they all pitied her 
And said they would prevail as best they could 
Upon their father to break off his word 



48 TIIE LEGEND OF MAIDEN ROCK. 

And let her have the only one she wished. , 

But, thinking kindly for her all the time, 

It was concerted among them that they should, 

To comfort her, appear to get it changed, 

But really just to ask their father's power 

To get the time extended unknown to her, 

When, as they thought, a time will make a change 

(For on the chief they looked as on their own), 

Save one who, though he held his peace about it, 

Could not agree to see their sister sold. 

They told their father all. He, like a beast 

Brought from the wilds and barred within a cage, 

Was ill at ease and could not rid him of it. 

And they told Saunup, making it appear 

That she was ill, and that the suddenness 

Of all had broke her down, but that she would 

Within a little time be willing for him. 

And this too they told Oontum, who at last 

Was willing that the time should be set off, 

For he had no suspicion but that she 

Would have, not opposing, him whom they wished. 

Here Nona's grief began. The little joy 
We think we have is but a doubtful dream — 
The more the joy the deeper is the dream ; 
Thus when we waken, lo ! the dream is gone, 
And life is joyless in our wakeful hours. 
Even like the buzzing of a summer fly 
That droops at every chill, or dies in pain 
Within the grasping of an idle boy, 
Is but the chansnn"- of our brittle dav. 



SAUNUP. 49 

And in the semblance of our catching joy 

We hurt our fellow with a deeper grief, 

As some men that for pleasure pierce the pin 

Clean through the body of an insect bee 

To see it writhe, and beat its wings, and tramp 

The empty air to free itself, to know 

How long it can be dying and yet live, 

Are many who to gratify themselves 

Do sell the love of others, thinking not 

That they be piercing other hearts with barbs 

Which pain more than the shiny point of steel 

Thrust in its membrane in the flesh would pain ; 

Who thinking of advantage, never look 

Upon the side reverse until too late ; 

And thus intently do they seem the beast 

That buffets in its paws its prisoner. 

So Nona felt herself a helpless prey, 

And felt the hateful barb pierce in her heart, 

And felt the dullness gather in her blood, 

And felt that other days were but a dream, 

And like the fly that struggles to get free 

With something in it answering to our hope 

She turned herself to Moren. When one turns 

In friendship and for comfort to a friend 

In needful times and then no friend is near, 

One's grief is full, for even the woodland birds 

Do share their frail, high-swinging tenements 

With their weak comrades in the pelting storm. 

But from the village Moren had gone before 
The warriors were returned, and hid himself 
Deep in the forest from their hateful gaze. 

5 



50 THE LEGEND OF MAIDEN ROCK. 

There stay'd until the day of greeting was past 
When he beneath the darkness stole to home. 
So Nona saw him not. Then in her heart 
She felt, but for an instant, love's remorse, 
And wondered, " Is his love a hate that thus 
He has gone from me when I miss him most 
To tell him of my grief? And have I not — 
Not one kind one on whom I can rely ? 
Lone, all alone. No, not alone: his love 
Shall comfort me although he may be gone. 
But he is not gone — no, I know he is not ; 
But were he gone, or were he proved untrue, 
Yes, though he hates me I will love him yet." 

Thus Nona bore an anguish in her heart 

That none knew of : a bitter well of grief 

That ever bubbled upward from those days 

Fed from her thouq-hts, a constant running stream. 



III. 

M O R E N. 

NOW image is the food and bane of love ; 
For when it would nourish, it often, often turns 
To poison, and so kills where it would cure. 
And solitude is love's ally : the world 
Holds it in check by turning the image away. 
But thought on love alone unturned abroad 
Is like that herb which puts the men who use it 
Into such sleep whereof they neither die, 
Neither do live, but lie in happiness 
Sweet as the breath that blows across the vales 
Into the world from out the dreamers' heaven, 
While with the fumes the herb does turn its strength 
To shake the soul with all the terrors of hell. 

Before the warriors from their toils came back 

Moren had left, and as he left forgot 

Her and his love ; for in the hurry and noise 

His warring thoughts were turned from her and placed 

Full on himself and on his hate ; but when 

The world in stillness closed about him he thought 

Of Nona's face, and every fear was gone. 

Then would he to his lonesome heart repeat 

The words she often told him, how she loved. 

But yet be had no power to face her now ; 

For in the using of the thought itself, 

(51) 



52 THE LEGEND OF MAIDEN ROCK. 

His life being drawn back to the baser world, 
The fitful twilight of his mind ran fast 
Into the darkness of his hateful self, 
When ghostly voices mocked his vain attempt, 
And called him coward and of meanly kind. 

Changing he was, as changing as a day 

In early spring, when promise first is given 

Of weather fair upon the breaking hills; 

When ere the sun is warm the clouds do come 

To make a gloom where now we thought it fair. 

And then we cannot prophesy with truth 

For one short hour before us; and his thoughts 

Were driven along around his brain as fast 

As shadows chase each other over the fields. 

He thought sometimes there were two powers within, 

These ever wrangled, and one always ruled 

With such an uproar as the gods had once 

Warring with pride against the might of Heaven. 

These were the race of Titans : these upheaved 

The deep foundations of his little world. 

Thus when he thought of her and on his hope, 

The better ruled, and when upon himself 

The evil one then tramped upon the good. 

And since his thoughts were bent upon himself 

The times were evil to him, and he lived 

As lives a stranger in a distant land, 

Who never hopes to see his home again. 

Nor was it envy that possessed his soul, 

Nor hate of any, but a hate so great, 

So vast, so uncontrollable, so strong, 

That single ones before him in this way 



MOREN. 53 

Were no more hated than a wriggling worm. 
And when they had bound a captive of the war 
Fast to a stake, and held their carnival 
While offering up their heathen holocaust, 
Then he, forgetting of their joys, dashed in, 
Braving their menaces like a crazy one, 
And turned the prisoner loose among them all. 

When from a boy's hand high in air is cast 

A stone, 'tis noticed how when at the height 

It hangs an instant moveless without prop, 

So stopt they as if shocked by some disease 

At such unlook'd-for and peculiar act. 

But only for a moment ; forward sprang 

The braves, and like a pack of hounds slipt loose 

They closed around the wounded stricken game, 

Which, after standing in bewilderment, 

Had started off with instinct far remote, 

As vermin when entangled in the toils 

Try to be disengaged ; but all in vain ; 

They were upon him ere he cleared the space, 

And shouting dragged him helpless to the stake 

To such it was a glory to evade 
The watchfulness of captors, and escape 
Back to their hills and glens, and issuing thence 
Again upon the war-trail glut their fill 
Of vengeance on the hateful foe to death. 
But when escape was hopeless, then they sang 
Their glory over, and reviled the ways 
Of torture used upon them, calling it 

5* 



54 THE LEGEND OF MAIDEN ROCK. 

A method fit for babes and not for men ; 
And if we give a credence to the truth, 
We may believe a fortitude was shown 
By these - wild creatures, children all alike, 
Even not surpassed by those divinities, 
Those demigods and heroes that throng thick 
The mythic page of them idolatrous. 
Not she, the painted one, who spat her tongue 
Into the face of her land's enemy; 
Who had a statue in the open square, — 
A tongueless lioness, — reared for her fame 
Long since in Athens, could surpass their pride. 

They brought the prisoner back, and made again 

A circle round him of the gathered wood 

From which the fire could barely touch the flesh, 

Borne low and fork'd over the current air. 

The sappy bands were bound around his waist, 

And back behind the stake, crisped and black, 

His hands were tethered fast ; but from his eyes 

A fire of hatred flashed and base contempt. 

Then to the music of their own device, 

With shrieks, and yells, and sound of rage delayed, 

They tortured him to make him cry in pain. 

But here the intent of that far-fabled lay 

Wherein the wild swan sings its sweetest note 

Yet heard in dying in its reedy home 

Was realized by these. Then their own homes, 

Their squaws, their babes, their strivings after fame, 

Their listless lolling in the summer sun, 

The cheerful memory of the winter fire 

Whereby the husbands laughed at idle fears 



MO REN. 55 

Told by the women from the far-off howl 
Of hungry she-wolves seeking after prey 
Along the borders of the desert land — 
These they forgot, but knew if they should die 
Like heroes, that their names would after live 
In kind remembrance by their kin and tribe : 
A thought collateral with the dying thought 
That urged the saints to die a sacrifice, 
They knowing that their life was not their own. 

And such remembrance did not once recur 
To him a helpless prisoner in their midst, 
Nor did his memory run to once ago 
When he stood up bravely; how hero-like 
He clasped her as his own, and joyed that by it 
There now had come a time to show his love. 

They used this warrior badly as the rest. 
They cut his ears out from his head; then each 
That cut the members off, seized one of them 
Between his teeth, and shook his head about 
As dogs that worry mice ; handfuls of hair 
Were torn by jerking it from his helpless head, 
And in his eyes was thrust a pointed knife, 
Bent round and round, and twisted every way, 
While strips of flesh were torn until they all 
Had in their mouths a quivering bit of skin: 
With these they daubed their cheeks, and frequently 
They threw a bit out from the ring, to which 
The children ran in scrabble; while the squaws 
Would tell the youngsters how to torture him, 
By casting coals of fire ; this they would do, 



56 THE LEGEND OF MAIDEN ROCK. 

Then, laughing at the sport, would run fast back. 

And all this time they sang like crazy ones ; 

And he, too, all the time, sang tauntingly 

The words next to his heart ; and when they saw 

They could not make him be a coward this way, 

They jerked his tongue out of his mouth violently. 

One thing they knew, and this they learned by time, 

Which was to make the torture be severe, 

Yet let the patient suffer under the pain 

A lengthen'd life. Yet he would not reveal 

His suffering to them by a sign or way, 

As to such death is sweet; but toward the last, 

They did a favor as they loosed his hands, 

Not meaning good ; and when he felt himself 

Loosed in the arms, he brought his hands aloft 

And urged his fingers into the flabby gash 

Above his breast, and tore a strip of flesh 

With one last effort from about his heart. 

He doing thus had purposed to reach in, 

And with a dying effort seize his life, 

And hold it to their view. But death here stopp'd 

him. 
Low down his body drooped ; lower his arms 
Swung near the warmer fire ; and even here 
They did not yet desist, but many ways 
They brought disgrace upon the mangled corse, 
By more unsightly ways than animals 
That tear the carrion which the hunters leave, — 
Far lower in grade than jackals that dislodge 
The bodies buried in the lonesome wild, 
Left by the travelers passing in that way. 



MO REN. 57 

And Moren they reclaimed likewise; and they 

Would have dealt with him in their rage the same 

As dealt they with a wolf when they caught one 

Prowling about the village ; but they were stopp'd 

From using violent hands by other of them ; 

While some of his own kind, who knew his ways, 

In order to appease the ones blood-hot, 

Pointed with fingers and struck them on their heads 

To intimate the place his weakness lay. 

And gratitude, the tribute of the angels, 

Did help to spare him in his time of need. 

For once, and when a panther had seized a child, 

A poor, slim, tiny one wrapped up in skins, 

And made off for her den in rapid leaps, 

Just as a cat would carry off a mouse, 

Then he not thinking of danger to himself 

Snatched up a club — the plaything of the babe — 

Left in his speed the other ones behind, 

Who sought for arms and implements of death, 

And faced the wild beast as she laid it down. 

He met the shock, bore her to the earth, 

Drew the infant from the monster's fangs, 

And in the mother's arms placed it. She, 

W-ild and distract, worried the babe with kisses, 

And almost smothered it up with tears, which brought 

Tears to the eyes of those who stood around 

Graciously ; and they, knowing no other tie, 

Remembered of it, looking for a time 

In which they could repay. Now was the time, 

And for the present did they pacify 

Their craving with it till they got him from sight. 



58 THE LEGEND OF MAIDEN ROCK. 

But some were not to be put off by this, 
And ere the day was over had they looked 
To every corner peering for him: found, 
They brought him like another captive, tied, 
Before the chief, to whom they told the crime, 
Desiring of him blood to wipe it off. 
The chief then called a council, not before 
It had been talked about and run the round 
Of all the village ; by the talkative ones 
Some things were added that did not belong, 
As well as shortened when they told the truth, 
But yet enough remained for all to know 
That he should have to answer for his act 
Before the chief and council of the wise. 
Thus knowing they, through various causes led, 
Came in a body to the council lodge 
And filled the spacious room to its excess. 

Upon a chair of curious workmanship, 

Made out of boughs and antlers of the elk, 

Set up above the ground upon a stage 

That ran along the end of the room entire 

Sat Oontum ; at his feet on either side 

Were ranged the fathers whose consent was just; 

The offender and the offended to their right, 

While to his left sat those who took his part. 

Behind their backs against the rugged wall 

Dead birds with drooping heads and outstretch'd wings 

Were hung, all kinds from eagles down to bats, 

And lizards also, and the skins of snakes, 

And skeletons of the skulking, burrowing brood 

Were stretched along the walls, and fleshless skulls 



MOREN. 59 

That showed their teeth and alway seemed to snaid 

From many a perch, were in this curious hall. 

These all brought reverence in the place they held 

Clothed in an awe with power subordinate 

To that Great One who ruled them everywhere. 

A seriousness becoming well old age 

Now rested on the faces of the wise : 

With mouth set firmly with the edges down, 

Scarce moving in their seats, they heard the case. 

A warrior, one who felt the insult keen, 

Demanded silence and the ears of all. 

"Fathers," said he, "our cause is just. We braved 

The many hardships of the fruitful war, 

And brought a fame upon the common tribe. 

Those whom we took were warriors well as we. 

They fought like tiger-cats, and at the first, 

Before the war turned for us, bore us back. 

They helped to leave our braves dead on the field, 

Whose bones the carrion crows pick, fighting for, 

When we having our vengeance gratified 

By taking pleasure at their snaky pain, 

Thanking the Spirit for our great success, 

This hunter here before us, one who hid 

And rested free from danger and from toil 

When we made haste to tear them from their nests, 

Braved all the warriors in their dance of death 

And cut the thongs of him bound to the stake, 

While some that took his part then urged him oft. 

What cause had he for this? What made him be 

This way ungrateful to us for our pains? 

Was it for this we tore them from their nests ? 

For this we carry the gaping wounds of war ? 



60 THE LEGEND OF MAIDEN ROCK. 

Was it for this we left our dead ones there 
Whose ghosts still shriek upon the troubled stream 
For those who injured and who struck them down ? 
The wrathful talking of the evil one 
Urged him to this, and now we ask his blood." 

His party singularly groaned assent 

Which ran around the room till it was stilled 

By one who took upon him Moren's defense. 

" Fathers," said he, " and braves, we hear the cause, 

And pay due deference to your mighty deeds. 

This witness by our help to torture those. 

Mind how we tore the quivering strips of flesh 

Clean down their backs, and helped to heap the fire 

Within the hollow; how we mashed their feet 

Till the dark blood had burst the loosened nails 

And hung the shreds upon the ankle bones ; 

And when they told their deeds done in the fight 

How we tore out their eyes, and cut their tongues. 

Such is the feeling too of him before us 

When he is at himself, but then the spirit 

That has got angry at him in some way 

Has turned a thunder-cloud into his head, 

And made him do an act he could not help. 

We cannot blame, for by his doing so 

He made the pain last longer and more sweet. 

This shows alone that Manito did do it. 

We therefore ask you to be lenient, 

And spare the hunter's life and let him go." 

The braves impatiently then spoke through one, 
" That the bad spirit did it is most manifest; 



MO REN. 61 

That one it is which brings the evil days 
Upon our tribe, and hurts us every way. 
For this alone he should be sacrificed. 
Who is it too that dare to ask his life ? 
Those ones who watch the women and the babes. 
Let them go out and bring to us fresh scalps 
Before they dare to talk, and when they fetch 
A prisoner they can drink his blood themselves, 
Nor we presume to tear him from their hands !" 

The braves here shouted and grew petulant, 

And high over their heads all through the room 

Their flinty hatchets and their knives were swung. 

Had it been elsewhere than within that lodge 

The vengeance of the braves would've been upon him. 

This even now was feared, for from the throng 

A female with a child in upraised arms 

Bore through the mass: she thrusted out the child 

Towards their faces, and she told aloud 

With rapidly flowing words that this was the babe 

That Moren had saved to her and to the tribe — 

To pity her, to pity him, and spare. 

But still the voices were riot hushed or quelled 

Till high above the din came one loud scream ; 

Another female struggled through the crowd 

Which opened for her as with one consent. 

This one was Nona — Nona yet but changed. 

She fell on Moren, drew his head to hers, 

And for an instant lost herself to earth. 

The crowd were taken back and sullenly, 

As men whose rage is smothered but not quenched, 



62 THE LEGEND OF MAIDEN ROCK. 

They stopp'd abased a moment wondering at it. 
She raised her head ; her arms were round his neck, 
But with her hand she moved them back, and cried, 
" Go back, you all ; have you not blood enough — 
So want to take more that is innocent? 
And you, the chief, why don't you drive them off? 
You have the power, and will you use it bad ? 
But yet you shall not — long as I have life 
You shall not drag him off unless you drag 
Me with him, and I care not then. Stay back!" 
His arms were tied behind him, so she clasped 
Her own around him and she shielded him 
With her own body in that angry time. 

But Oontum from his massy chair arose 

With anger so apparent that the cords 

Of his huge neck were swollen twice their size. 

He stood upright ; his blanket loosen'd hung 

From his left shoulder to his feet, looped there 

At his right side was held fast by his hand. 

His right hand clinched, his arm appeared all bare, 

And so his nether limb, and on them hung 

The uneven muscles in great matted piles. 

He raised his foot and brought it down with force ; 

Into a blurry murmur sank the crowd 

As he began to speak. " What means this noise ? 

Why spoil the quiet council of the wise ? 

The cause shall they decide when it is told 

By those wise prophets whom you all revere 

Which spirit lies within him, good or bad. 

So lay no hands upon him — let him be, 

And spare the ingrate whom you all abhor." 



MO REN. 63 

So Oontum spoke, and they obeyed his voice 
As from the room they all retired with speed. 
Then turned he to his daughter : " How is this ? 
I left my Nona ill, aud she is here. 
Up from that posture there and get you home, 
Where women should be. Let no child of mine 
Ask me for mercy in a case like this." 

The Eagle-Eye approached to Nona's side, 

Clasped both her wrists, and loosed her tender arms 

Like little withes of bark, and said unto her, 

" Come, sister, come ; this is no place for you. 

If still you want to get our father's will 

You must not act like this, or he will think 

There was no truth in any word you said." 

"When as he loosed her they bore Moren out, 

She shrieking after them though she could not go. 

They took her to their lodge where still she moaned, 

With thoughts that they would kill him ; when she told 

How he Avas all the love she ever had ; 

From which they thought — poor, simple ones — that 

then 
The evil spirit had likewise got in her. 
Her brother here said to her, tauntingly, 
" This is your love ; he is the one you said 
Is worthy all of us ! A pretty one, 
A common hunter and a coward at best! 
What could you look for with the love you had ? 
Shame, Nona, shame ! If I were bad 
I would say, take him, and never see us more, 
And this would be the worst thing I could wish." 
Then when the truth was made apparent to him, 



64 THE LEGEND OF MAIDEN ROCK. 

The anger of the chief was so inflamed 
That words could not express it, but in his passion 
He raved about the creature with contempt, 
And in a breath forbade her have a love. 

Then came alone those sorcerers who held 
A reign of fear within their every mind. 
The doors were closed with skins; a blazing fire 
Glowed in the center of the chamber floor, 
While round the fire a mystic circle ran. 
Within the circle sat the conjurers, 
Dressed in grotesque apparel ; one them had 
Upon his shoulders swung a grizzly's skin 
Of which the head was stretched above his own. 
About the bottom of the skin were hung 
A hundred tassels made of vermin tails. 
Another had his head masked up all round 
With holes cut in the mask for him to see out. 
His body was smeared a black ; around his neck 
In many a coil and knot were snakeskins stuffed 
That dangled on his breast, and from his waist 
He wore a garment as a woman's dress 
Trailing upon the ground. The third one had 
Upon his shoulders set a wild-ox skull 
Inversely, with the horns in front, and back 
The jointed joy that hung down from its hinge ; 
While to the skull in gathers was made fast 
The ox's hide which hid its habitant 
Without a shape within its blackish folds. 

Long time they sate within the mystic ring; 
No words were spoken, only now and then 



MOREN. 65 

One grunted like a beast ; but at the last, 
Rising involuntarily, they danced wildly 
With droning howls heated in head and frame. 
Then when they ceased, a fox was given to them. 
They split it down and tore the entrails out, 
Hurling them into the fire; then reaching coals, 
Dropped them into the stomach of the cub 
And drew the skin together, while they watched 
The black distasteful smoke go up in wreaths, 
And judged till now the omens were for good. 

But when they came to separate the joints, 

And scrape the white flesh from the looseu'd skull 

To see the queer fantastic crooked lines 

Which fire brings out upon the heated bone, 

The signs were not so faithful or so good. 

So on the coals were strewn sweet-scented leaves 

Till the white vapor rolled along the roof, 

While on the ground they moveless lay prostrate. 

Again was all repeated, again they raked 

The skull and bones from out the living coals, 

And then the} r called it good : the oracle 

Was pure and sacred, and no doubt was held ; 

The wise believed and held it from above, 

And told it to the people, who obeyed 

Implicitly, and they pronounced him free. 

When Moren from his prison-house was let, 
Once more his ways came slowly back upon him 
With thoughts of Nona and of better days. 
She looking for him once again they met 
6* 



66 THE LEGEND OF MAIDEN ROCK. 

Within the suburbs of the scattered huts, 

And then she told him of her grievances 

With that devotion which the weaker have 

To those the stronger whom they trust in love. 

They promised here their meetings in the dark. 

But seldom met they in their try sting-place, 

Only by lonely times, for watch was set. 

But one night— 'twas the last one — there they met. 

The watery moon went through the flying clouds 

As if to catch the sunshine, while anon 

Short, wild gleams shone flickeringly through the rifts. 

There Nona rested lovingly her head 

On Moren's breast, and Moren's arms were round 

And held her nearer to his loving heart. 

Then Moren spoke : " I know, my dearest bud, 
That thou canst never be my own while here, 
So I am troubled like the wind-drove waves 
When storms set shoreward o'er our ferny lake. 
Calm is the time of even, sweet the rest 
Of night to tired, and worn, and weary ones ; 
But I am never happy, sweet, my dove, 
While I am from thee, Nona, and thy love." 
Then looking upward to his eyes she said, 
" No, Moren, no, say never from my love : 
The lonely dove does never cease to mourn 
When from its side its mate is carried otf." 
" But, Nona, it can never, never be 
That we are one so long as we stay here. 
Then leave your father in his wrath behind 
And seek a home with me far in the wild : 
There will I raise a lodge where we will live, 



MO REN. 67 

There I'll be happy when I see but you, 

There will we rest in peace, there ever love." 

Then Nona, kind of stopping in her speech — 

" Oh, Moren dear, you are my only hope, 

And I'm unfit to claim your loving heart. 

My father loves me, and he holds me dear 

Almost to death ; but then his hate, you know, 

Is almost past one's suffering. Should we go 

Peep in the forest distant from his sight, 

My father's rage would surely find us out. 

A man can go whichever way he wants, 

But woman, she is weaker, and for her 

To break herself against a parent's wish 

Is but a lingering death. We are trafficked off 

As thiugs of no avail. But you will wait, 

Just wait a little, Moren — I have hope ; 

Perhaps my father will relent for me ; 

If not — if not — " thus turned it off scarce knowing, 

"Then we will leave and I shall do your wish." 

Then Moren spoke as if he was surprised, 

" And not till then ? till then ?" That was enough : 

The doubt that fell upon him at that time 

On such a mind was nothing but despair, 

And thus the prospect of those other days 

Was turned into a vision of the night. 

But Moren still continued musingly, 
" I see it plainly Avhat the Spirit means : 
We'll never know each other in the world. 
But when my spirit passes to that land, 
And thistle-down is blown from off my grave — 



68 THE LEGEND OF MAIDEN ROCK. 

If I do have a grave — then will I come 
And call you ; and be with you till you come. 
Then when you come I'll take your hand in mine, 
And we will pass adown those smiling vales, 
And live among the happy evermore." 

In an instant after this the Eagle-Eye 

Sprang through the bushes. He ended their peace 

By parting them and bidding Moren go, 

Nor ever talk to Nona once again. 

He said to Nona, " Were you not forbid 

To see this hunter — by your father too? 

This is the way his child does mind his voice. 

Come on with me from this." So carried her 

With lengthy steps and left the other stand 

Inactive at the suddenness of it all. 

That night he wandered round, he knew not where, 

With eyebrows raised, and with a wild, lost stare ; 

No consolation for him, as no grief, 

That he could call a grief, was patent to him. 

Little he cared to either live or die, 

For in his franticness he knew no pain 

This lasted through the day: no food he took, 

Nor sleep the next night to his eyelids came ; 

But when the morning came, upon a knoll 

That looked upon the village down, he stood 

As flashed the flood of light across the land. 

He heard the bluebird sing, and from the wood 

The Indian-hen's long clatter reached his ear. 

Then Moren, on the lodges looking back, 



MOREN. 69 

Where all was peace, and seeing the vapor curl 
From out the lodges slowly toward the sky, 
Let drop his head upon his breast in pain, 
And turning his back upon them, wildly fled 
Down through the desert to where the beasts abode. 

When on some lonely isle far in the deep, 

Through ways unseen, two human ones are placed 

Who hold no commerce with aught living else; 

When both together live for many years 

Until they are bound by a stronger tie than blood ; 

When one does die and still the other lives 

Alone and solitary — so Nona felt 

Since Moren's self unto her had been lost. 

And when the moon had waned and got her full, 

And waned again and got her full again 

A few succeeding times, a change did come 

On Nona, Avhich was noticed by them all. 

She wandered round among them, but alone — 
Alone like many where the crowd is great — 
And felt in heart, if feeling could be told, 
Like that one in the fable of the birds 
Whose feathered mate was by a hunter killed, 
But which still sate upon its native bush, 
And from its little throat told all its grief: 
And none could comfort it; and even the man 
That struck its comrade would not strike at it 
And in his mercy put it out of pain ; 
Till unsustained, it, dying in its grief, 
Fell from its perch, and so went to its mate. 
So dying slowly thus she was to them. 



70 THE LEGEND OF MAIDEN ROCK. 

Her fretful sleep was short, and broken up 

With dreams as changing as the many forms 

That lie within the kaleid in the hands 

Of a playful, careless child. Then from her lips 

Would come such words as, " I am with you now, 

Moren," or, changing, " We are bartered off 

To those who give the most, but I am thine ;" 

While ever did his last words, like a plaint, 

Seem nearest to her heart and tongue, and when 

No one was near her studiously she spoke, 

" And live among the happy evermore." 

Her cheeks, so full, so healthy, now were sunk, 

Their bones worked outward as in some disease ; 

No more so springing was her active step, 

But shorter, and her eyes were always down, 

Nor after scarcely any more she smiled, 

Save when some dear one, knowing, tried to please; 

She then dissembled, but never in her heart. 

Then in these days the bud was withering. 

And many hearts were sad and sorrowful 
To see her wandering in the dusky gloom 
At evening all alone, a shadow like 
Of her that walked before ; or in the morning 
Ere the Milky Way was dimm'd, while shone 
The six lone sisters just above the belts, 
Then walked a spirit on the bordering wood, 
She whom they loved, now lost and comfortless. 

Those times when word was but the law they had, 
They all revered it as of binding force, 



MO REN. 71 

Sacred to death, and punished those with death 

Who dared to offer such indignity 

Right to their gods, in face of other men, 

As trifle with a word when it was out. 

So Oontutn's promise given was held unasked, 

While with the past these months were slipping away. 

Then thinking that a change would change her ways, 

The deatbful knell was rung into her ear 

Once more : once more was that dark day brought 

back, 
And in a time before another war 
That was expected on them after awhile, 
She promised, to appease them, to agree, 
With some faint hope she had, untold, infirm, 
Perhaps only the shadow of a hope. 
So those who thought within a little time 
That they could not be swerved and all was sure, 
Were forced by her sweet pleading to relent. 
Such is the power of love on feeling minds, 
Such is the power of women over men, 
Such, over strength, the power of innocence. 

But she was lost to every outward thing. 

With her thoughts lifted from reality 

She lived within a region that was dim, 

Dim and uncertain, with no solid ground 

On which to rest from weariness. So time 

In its old grooves of day and night slid on 

Until the summer in November month 

Brightened the faded garments of the wood, 

And made a hazy covering for the hills 

Which hid them from the frost, and brought again 



72 THE LEGEND OF MAIDEN ROCK. 

The blue-jay from its covert screaming loud 
Its lonely note from every leafy bower. 
To her unheeded all, for not with sight 
Or hearing do we love the outer world, 
But with the senses of our godly part. 



NONA. 

THEN came the cheerless winter wrapp'd in mist, 
Bearing on Nona like the friendless mist 
Old age sees from his eyes. She went sometimes 
A venture from the village for a way 
To stand upon a hillock, with a hope 
That that long-absent one, he hovering near, 
Would see her, and then come and break her thrall. 
But him she saw not, but she saw instead 
The white land dinted by the cloven hoofs ; 
And still no friendly form broke on the sky 
To meet her. All in vain. The low, dark clouds 
Rested upon the haze : the river flowed 
Noiseless to regions in a warmer clime 
Under its ermine belt, and on its hills 
The trees were green beneath their caps of snow. 
And seldom in the day came sounds, except 
A brood of wild fowl skirting on the wood 
Struck up their clamor, or those wanderers 
Across the zenith, coming from the north, 
Trumped out their lonely call so desolate, 
And drearer from a distant sky — still dimmer, 
Till pass'd they from the sight toward that bright bourn 
Where all is summer far beyond the seas. 

1 (73) 



74 THE LEGEND OF MAIDEN ROCK. 

Still came he not. Bat once, when she had looked, 

And seen him not, turning aside her head, 

She saw on sudden on the horizon off, 

A troop of bison like a fallen cloud, 

For size and darkness, covering all the vale. 

And fast it grew still larger, and she knew, 

When all the plain was darkened, that she stood 

Direct before them in their mad career. 

She screamed, but useless : on the air it died, 

Nor left an echo ; as she tried to run 

Her limbs refused her, and through nervousness 

She sank upon the ground ; her power was gone, 

And all her strength was in her strength of will. 

But as the herd came bellowing over the plain 

Pursued by hunters, at an angling wood 

Saunup and three of her brothers, with some braves, 

To tire their stiffened limbs broke for the brutes, 

And veered them, but not knowing, from their course. 

They joined the chase, and bounding fast along 

Upon their rackets, scattered round the herd 

Upon its sides and flanks to hem them in. 

Saunup was there to the left, and passing close 

He saw the darkened bulk lie on the snow. 

To it he ran, and lying at his feet, 

Her face upturned against the leaden sky, 

Was Nona, whom he loved, seemingly dead. 

He stooped to her and kissed her for the first — 

Such kisses come not from the lust of flesh, 

Nor ever are repeated ; and when man 

Has pass'd his boyish days and come to man, 

Then kisses for the first, earth is not earth. 



NONA. 15 

From suffering long the throbbing of her heart 
Was weakened in her, and the smallest fright 
Made it beat fast, taking away her breath. 
So she was helpless, and she lay as dead 
When Saunup came upon her ; but the chase 
Swept like a wind along beyond the knoll, 
And Saunup was with Nona left alone. 
He tore the bear-skin from about his neck, 
Threw it on her, and took her in his arms. 
Then rested on his shoulder that sweet face, 
Now cold and passionless ; there hung those arms 
Lifeless about his neck : then that big heart, 
Which sent the crimson life-blood through his frame, 
Beat fast and hard though soft now as a child's. 

He bore her to the village : gently-like 

He laid her down within her father's lodge. 

There watched beside her till the returning heat 

Sent the warm blood through all her veins again. 

Then lifting up her eyes she saw above 

The eyes of Saunup peering in her own, 

And felt they looked of love, and in his touch 

Was softness that belonged to tender hands. 

And she rebelled not at his kindly way 

Till to the sight of things her vision turned 

And opened on the ravings of the brain. 

And in this state she lay for a long time, 

Tended by loving hands, till by their skill, 

In helping nature to regain its sway, 

And her own meekness, she came to herself. 

So Saunup was another from the thought 

" She loves me now from knowing how I love," 



76 THE LEGEND OF MAIDEN ROCK. 

And feeling thus, he fed his wayward thoughts 
With food as sweet as honey to the taste, 
While she lay lingering on her restless bed 
Hid from his sight and distant from his voice. 

But as the golden bees in summer time 
Within a far wood in a deep ravine 
Stored up the labor of their sunny hours 
Inside a hollow tree, and then flew home 
To brave the winter when it dared to come ; 
When with the first blast of the howling storm 
That swept across the wood, down came the tree, 
When all its precious treasure lay exposed, 
And all their summer's labor lay as lost : 
So Saunup's passion lying near his heart, 
Though rich and pure, was as it had not been. 

For Nona, though she hated no one, yet 
One, only one, could claim the love she owed, 
And other love was vain. But yet she felt 
A gratitude for Saunup for his love, 
Which she could not repay or tell him of. 
It hurt her much to see one claim her thus, 
And so she pitied him — (and pity too 
Is but a love) — and even wished a chance 
Wherein her pity could be shown to him ; 
But then to do that what her father said 
Was hateful, and she shuddered at the thought, 
And with it life became a kind of pain. 

But when the winter was almost with the past, 
And from the south the peering sun came forth, 
Telling his power upon the feeling earth ; 



NONA. 71 

When the old crows came circling in the air, 
And followed soon the silver mocking-bird, 
To sit behind the bush and laugh his fill, — 
Then on a day most part the tribe went forth 
To gather herbs and clay beside the stream, 
While others chased the hoofs along the plain, 
And some wove garments in the sunny town, 
Against the war made by them on a foe 
That lay far eastward o'er the morning hills. 

Far upward from their stationary abode, 
Within that valley by the river shore, 
The monster stream swells out beyond its banks, 
Making a lake among the craggy hills 
Large and expansive. Likewise in that age, 
When doubt and darkness dwelt within the mind, 
Gloom hung along the edges of the lake 
Like on the fabled stream of Acheron. 
The waves frisked listlessly against the base 
Of mountains which the water had split like a knife, 
Whose sides were covered with the firs and pines 
That found a turf upon the jutting rocks. 
But on the summit of a precipice 
Highest of all, from which one looking north 
Could see the waters of the lake expand 
Beneath him, and its boundary gloomy green 
In the far distance, and could see below 
The wheeling eagles and the birds of night 
Clutched, sleeping in the dark, to rough-edged rocks. 
There was a boulder like a table spread 
Over its top, and this was Maiden Rock, 
But named thus after this. Along the beach 
1* 



?8 THE LEGEND OF MAIDEN ROCK. 

Were strata of the earth from which they got 

At stated times the pigment that they used 

For covering of their skins for war and art. 

Hither with others on that spring day came 

Nona, her father and his sons, and braves, 

And made another home less permanent 

Along the lonely coast. Nor worked they fast, 

Nor urged the business, but converted it 

Half into pleasure. While the squaws and boys — 

A goodly number — helped to do the work, 

Some others sat quiet where a patch of light 

Bore through the leaves, and some along the shores 

For pastime dangled high the scaly fishes; 

Some practiced at their arts ; some lay them down 

At full length by the fires, from which arose 

Sweet sav'ry steam that quickened thus their taste, 

Thoughtless and careless each to all save self. 

During the two days now while they were there 

Nona had roved along the sounding shore, 

When looking once along the crags she saw, 

Cut fair against the sky the rock's outlines, 

Far up, and marked the gloom that lay beneath. 

Then did the dark thought cross her soul, the thought 

Of death, and with it ending of her pain, 

For soon the day she promised would be here. 

Nor all this time had Saunup been at rest, 
For he loved Nona, and he told her so ; 
Tried all his wiles to please her, softened down 
His fiercer nature thus to catch her ear, 
And did his best to make his feeling felt. 



NONA.- 79 

She used no harsh word to hiru, for she knew 

It was her father's and her brothers' wish 

For her to think of no asperity, 

But, on the opposite, to hear his words 

That she should please him thus ; but by no act 

She hinted at, nor did she intimate 

That she looked on him with that burning love. 

Her face could not look bright while beat her heart 

So mournful, but it wore a settled look 

Of melancholy — sickness of the heart — 

That sickness which eats inward at the core, 

And makes the mind grow more and more diseased. 

For when she would think upon the day now near, 
Think, also, of the troth she plighted once ; 
She shuddered at the doom that was reserved, 
And mourned the more, and with it hope grew less. 
But from that dark thought was her mind made up 
In secret, and she kept it to herself, 
Thinking upon her change while others slept. 
This nerved her, and she felt another life 
Grow on her sunken face, another light 
Flash from her eye, and then a purer thought 
Kept others in subjection, which was this, 
That to the voice of Moren she would go. 

So, leaving them, she wended her lonely way 
From out the little campment, and she passed 
Along the darksome dell and felt the waves 
Plash up against her feet upon the stones, 
And heard their endless music come and go 
Monotonous. She took the path that wound 



80 THE LEGEND OF MAIDEN ROCK. 

Up to the hilly bluffs above, through bush 

And over flinty pavement, toilsome steep. 

After her resting often by the way 

To gain her fluttering heart, and trembling sore, 

Like a hurt bird that scares at every noise, 

Thinking that they would follow, at last she reached 

The weary summit. Here she felt secure. 

In going upward Nona had been seen, 
And when she was missed by others in the camp 
They asked with wonder where had Nona gone ? 
Her going up the bluffs was told to them. 
Her brother felt uneasy at the news, 
Imagining that something hung upon her, 
And that some evil would befall her there, 
So far from them in such a dangerous place ; 
And thus suspicion, uudefined and dark, 
Brooded upon him. When they cast their eyes 
Along the crags they saw her stand alone 
Near to the edge — -just hanging, almost over. 

Then quick as thought he bid some follow him ; 
And springing far in many a rapid step, 
Their bodies checkered here and there the green ; 
While Oontum with the others hasted fast 
To reach the base, and all the camp appeared 
Like to the outpouring of a swarm of bees 
In April sunshine, while the murmur grew. 
In looking upward as they ran along 
They saw her gesturing with her arms far off. 
Then all the women threw their arms aloft 
And screamed to her, and moved her back with their 
hands, 



NONA. { 

And when her father at a distance came, 

He shouted loud to her in his agony, 

Scarce knowing what he said, or hearing scarce : 

" Come back, my Nona, 'tis thy father calls ; 

Come back to this old heart that loves thee yet, 

Nor Saunup's arms, but Moren's shall be thine." 

She heard him not, but lifting up her voice, 

She sang her death-song in that solitude : 

" I go, I go, — for why should I stay here ? 

My love has gone away, and in that land 

I'll meet my love again. "See, there he stands, 

Across the stream of death, holding his arms 

To catch me. Fear not, love, they cannot take me, 

For here they will not come. Farewell to all ; 

Father, farewell, — you killed my love with love ; 

Brothers, farewell, — no love like thine but mine ; 

And mine is stronger — for I overcome 

Your love with love. Life without love is death ; 

Death with love is life : thus I get to life. 

Oh, far across the plains I see the lodges 

Where we shall rest ; and thou, Great Spirit, come, 

Come bear me 'cross the way, come hold me up, 

Lest that I fall ; and, Moren, hold your arms 

To catch me to you, for I come, I come. 

Now I am with you, love, for all, all time." 

Ere the last words came from her lips she sprang 
Far from the rock towards the stream, and fell 
Down the long space, her arms extended wide. 
At last she struck a crag; her body fell 
Dangling alon£ the bushes till it struck 



82 THE LEGEND OF MAIDEN ROCK. 

Once more, then splashed into the waves below ; 
Nor yet the echoes ceased to replicate, 
But answered each along the watery caves. 

Too late had those ones come — too late to save. 

They at the top had seen her body fall, 

Had heard her dying song of grief and love, 

But could not save. They neared the brink, but shrunk 

From it far back and held their eyes from day. 

Those at the base who sought to take her up 

Saw her fall from them to her lasting grave. 

They hasted along the shore : there Oontum came ; 

Twice had she risen to the water's edge ; 

The third time, when her features broke the waves, 

He saw her, ghost-like, with a bloody gash 

Cut in her forehead, and her hair spread out, 

Floating like snakes around it. When it went 

The third time down he never saw her more, 

Nor any one saw her more, although they looked 

With wishful eyes for her, and dragged the stream 

With toilsome hands, but never more they saw her. 

From this time forth Oontum was changed in mind : 
That last dark sight had made a wreck of it ; 
Nor could he ever through the coming days 
Think on the world as he had thought before. 
For time had made quick feelings to grow slow, 
And like the rust eats in upon the iron, 
Remorse corroded fast upon his heart. 
And not long after was this old man seen — 
For in a short time he grew old and stooped — 
With head bent to the earth, plodding his way 



NONA. 83 

Through the long avenues and the aisles of wood 

That led from round the town to quietness. 

But everywhere he went he saw her face, 

Her laughing voice he heard from many a nook 

Sing in the windy music of the leaves. 

Then when he thought the vision always changed 

Into that last one when he saw her face, 

Then would he start, and stare, and beat his breast, 

And rave out on the hard heart that he had, 

Which would not for her sake one time relent. 

This could not last, and so he died of grief 

Who laughed at grief as but a woman's lot. 

So ended all his wars, and when he died 

The tribe, as was their custom, honored him 

In costly burial with their sacred rites. 

Three nights they howled around the blazing pile 

On which the warrior rested in his death ; 

The warriors living danced around the fires, 

Droning a requiem, while the women sat 

Deep in the shadows, wailing forth their hymns 

So dismal, sad, and full of ghostly words. 

Then on the coming day when the new sun 

Shined through the wood in all his fiery red, 

Two youthful and manly hunters out were led 

Across the green to where the chieftain lay. 

This was a sacrifice they always made 

To their dead chiefs — they were to follow him 

Down those dark regions through which, after death, 

The ghosts descend to reach the hunting-grounds. 

Then after the perilous passage was quite over, 

And crossed the angry flood which separates 



84 THE LEGEND OF MAIDEN ROCK. 

The fields of light from pain, they all would rest 
In other homes upon the happy shore. 
They looked so innocent, and a light serene, 
Such as the martyrs wore in olden times, 
Came from their faces, conscious of their doom. 
Then being led with fettered hands around, 
They bowed their heads as to an altar down : 
Then swung two war-clubs in the morning air, 
Down they were swept upon the kneeling ones : 
Then came a twitching and a spasmy gasp, 
When on the ground, for twice or only thrice, 
Then a long quiver, and they both were dead. 
Neither was marked, but little rills of blood 
Dropped, trickling, from their nostrils to the ground. 

They lifted up the dead, and wrapped them all 

In blankets and in skins, and laid beside 

Each one of them the weapons he had used, 

That they might have them in that other world. 

Thus they were buried in a kindly hope, 

And over them all were heaped the earth and stone. 

But never more they heard her trilling laugh 

Sounding so merrily in their compan} r ; 

And never more she past the lodges gray; 

And never more they blest her as their own ; 

And over the tribe there came a sudden blight 

As a dark shadow on a wedding-day 

Makes those ones shudder who are most concerned. 

The children missed her too, and often they, 
The little hearts, would ask with tenderness, 



NONA. 85 

To know where Nona was these many days, 

When catching grief would make the big hearts swell 

With softer answers, "Nona has gone to rest." 

And like the drone that lingers in one's ears 

With never-dying echoes, little griefs 

Make sorrow seem the greater, as the shell 

That lay for many days upon the coast, 

Lapped by the ceaseless waves, does tell, 

In a faint mimic, to the villager 

The endless sounding of the barren sea. 

But yet her brother's grief was worse than all : 

" Sister," he would say often, and the word 

Sank deep into his heart, seeming to mock, 

"Sister!" — "O mine, whom I shall see no more, 

Whose life I killed with love, or rather hate, 

Say will you not come to me e'en once more, 

And shake your black locks o'er my sleeping face, 

And wake me with a kiss as you did once, 

In happier days, and laugh my grief away ? 

Never, oh never, and I am the cause." 

And in the stifling of his inner grief 

His grief grew at the telling, and his thoughts 

Involuntarily would wander back 

To their sweet childhood days when both of them 

Were playmates on the green to when they stood 

Beside their mother on the wigwam floor 

To listen to her songs of other days. 

And Saunup had no word to say about her, 
But he likewise did often walk alone 
To kill a thought within, and get from where 
The places spoke of her in silent tongues. 

8 



86 THE LEGEND OF MAIDEN ROCK. 

But yet upon the others of her kin 
Sorrow spread out her wings like some huge bird, 
And much they felt to know they were the cause 
That brought the trouble by unkindliness. 

So the trail of war they joined one time more, 

But with forebodings which they never had had. 

This time they were successful but in part : 

The youngest brother they had left unfound, 

And Saunup, their ally, they brought with them 

Upon a litter, dead — all sorrowful. 

Thus little joy was felt when they returned 

To see them coming home without the one, 

And with the other lying on his bier. 

He on the bier they placed within the square ; 

Whereat, like Oontum, he lay out in state. 

Up to his waist was drawn a robe of fur ; 

His lithe, long body, all bedaubed with paint, 

No covering had ; upon his hilly chest 

One arm was placed, the other dead one drooped 

Down his lank side. His war-decked head hung back, 

Leaving his large, red mouth hang open, while 

His wound of death, a gash above the eye, 

Gap'd staring, and in it one could run a hand. 

Another time they danced around the dead, 

Sung their low wails, and fasted day and night; 

But in the day they built a funeral pyre, 

And on it laid the body in its dress, 

With all its fighting arms and scalps about it. 

Then in the middle of that gloomy night, 

As on the corse many a fitful gleam shone, 



NONA. 87 

The chieftain seizing a brand ran to the pyre, 

Which caught the shining flame and wrapp'd the dead 

In many a livid fold ; and with the smoke 

That started from the greedy fuel's touch, 

An eagle loosed, flapp'd free its cloudy wings, 

And sought the sky, its native home and haunts. 

The days from this time grew monotonous, 

And many wondered where had Moren gone. 

For when he parted he left no trace behind, 

But past into the wild, there made his home, 

Surrounded by the wild beasts till he died. 

Alone he died — no friendly hand was near ; 

But no one doubted this that Nona's ghost 

Hover'd about him as he lay, and sang 

Sweet music to his ear to ease his pain, 

A prelude to that music of the skies. 

And eaten was his flesh, and in his bed 

His bones lay whitening, and he was forgot, 

Till one day by some hunters straggled out 

The bones were found lying within the cave, 

Unhurt, alone ; which, when together put, 

Made up the skeleton of a long-lost man. 

There in the fragments hanging round the neck 

A little wristlet made of polished bone, 

Tied to a thong, was found : this Nona 'd worn, 

But later was a relic of her love, 

And by this clew they knew whose bones they were. 

Then near the cave was scraped a hollow urn 
In which the relic and the bones were laid, 
And over these was raised a mossy cairn. 



88 THE LEGEND OF MAIDEN ROCK. 

Soon, very soon, the seed fell 'mongst the stones, 

Then was the barrow hid by grass and weeds: 

But many a song the owl did love to sing 

In gloomy night-time when the moon shone dim, 

As if to keep the dead one company, 

While timid foxes burrowed underneath, 

And reared their young ones by the hollow skull. 

But after many moons a voice was beard 

In night-time in the soughing mournful wind, 

When winter held the earth within his web ; 

And to them in their straining it appeared 

Soft, plaintive, low, and seeming far away, 

Like chiming bells far out upon the sea. 

This they do say was Moren's restless ghost 

Come back among the lodges once again 

For Nona from the distant Spirit-land — 

Yet some did hold that Nona was there with him. 

These times the little young ones huddled close 

In round their mother while she told the love 

Of Nona and of Moren and their doom. 

Long after this it was before was formed 
That mystic worship which they all confessed 
When all of them retained their household shrines. 
Then slow by slow did this one learn its own. 
Then generations with their ceaseless tramp 
Followed each other, still they held for truth 
That Nona's body lay there in the lake, 
And that those lights which skim along the swamps, 
Which one can never catch, was Oontum's spirit; » 
While the fire-bugs that glimmer in the mist 



NONA. 89 

Just after twilight were the rest of them 
Who helped to hunt her body in the waves. 
Moren was turned into the whip-poor-will, 
That gloomy bird which hides his head from day 
And sings alone at night his song of woe, 
Hid in some vale beyond the homes of men ; 
And what was more complete, they always held 
That higher, where the stream foams over rocks, 
Making an endless.spray — where ceaseless mist 
Rises above the cataract's groan, and clings 
To the smooth surface all along the shore 
For distance, was the Good Spirit's earthly home. 
And so the water was sacred, and it seemed 
The grave had been ordained for her who slept 
Within it, and the place itself so grand 
Was but an altar built without frail hands ; 
And to a late day, when they come from wilds — 
Descendants of the ones who lived around — 
With no pure worship in them, standing there 
They are subdued and passive, nor they leave 
Without an offering of the incense herbs, 
Or little relics which they hold most dear, 
To satisfy the cravings of their god. 

And furthermore, to all the tribes far round 
It grew a spot well known and long revered ; 
And such a passion lay upon the place 
As lies upon the homestead, seldom seen, 
But never once forgot by most of us, 
With all its quaint surroundings, where our feet 
In childhood tramped in innocence and love. 
And they full credulous believed each tongue 



90 THE LEGEND OF MAIDEN ROCK. 

That spoke the prodigies shaped in the brain, 
Not unharmonious with their simple ways. 
Then every bird that trimm'd its glossy wiug 
Among the swinging branches of the pine 
Sang of the love of her, and any swan 
That ruffled up the eddies on the stream 
Would not be touched, such was their reverence. 
And when the fall wind swayed the heavy boughs, 
And bent the rushes bordering on the lake 
In rolling waves, they fancied that they wept 
In unison for her ; and every leaf 
Talked in a language of their own like birds, 
Of that fell story of their wayward love. 

A remnant of this tribe long after left 

Their hunting^grounds^long the river shore, 

And past together in a huddled band 

Still westward toward the mountain's sloping base 

Which like a parapet circles round the land 

And holds it from the sea — that boundless sea 

In whose far waters every night for years 

The sun was buried to their darken'd eyes, 

Or went to ghostly land ; and where they lived 

Was made the haunt of many a forest beast 

That got its food by night and lived by stealth, 

Till in good time a people blest of God 

Came across the ocean, settled in the land, 

And made the wood to be a feast for eyes. 

But to the scattered ones it is a spot 
As sacred to them as is a mother's grave 
To orphan children in the light of truth. 



NONA. 91 

The Indian maiden, thinking on Nona's love, 

Does to her memory often drop a tear ; 

While many a brave far in his forest home, 

Thinking 1 on her sad fate thoughtlessly turns, 

To think of other times, fortunate days 

When nature was untrammeled and they were free. 

When evening comes, and night drops on the earth, 

Or through the stars the moon looks sadly down 

Upon the water to its shadowy rim ; 

When in the north the winds are laid to rest, 

A sound comes from the rock-cleft overhead — 

Softly and sweetly from the distance comes, 

Echoing from rock to rock, from ledge to ledge. 

The warrior stops, now dressed in peaceful dress, 

Yet firm believes that it is Nona's voice. 

The hunter on the water on the lake 

Sees then a dim form leaping from the ledge — 

Or if he does not see it, thinks he does — 

And falling, falling far down in the dim light 

Until the darksome shadows swallow it up, 

Or in the misty moonbeams it is lost. 

And he believes it when he thinks upon it, 
For when an infant he was lulled to sleep 
With that same old tradition by a voice 
That rests now covered by the moaning wind, 
But which still sings beyond the narrow grave : 
And he believes the echoes of that voice 
Before the voice of any living one. 



92 THE LEGEND OF MAIDEN ROCK. 

And then within her bush the whip-poor-will 
Stops her song- : the listener stands moveless, 
Trying to catch the echoes dying off 
Upon the quiet waters in the hills, 
Like to the strings of some old instrument 
Moved by the careless wind — till all is gone. 



CONGRESS 



